Mass media

The television broadcaster Channel 4 has begun showing a five-part documentary series about people living in a deprived street in Birmingham. The series – called 'Benefits Street' – was filmed in James Turner Street in the Winson Green area of Birmingham: the area has a very high rate of unemployment and the street has many residents who rely on benefits for their income.

Channel 4 says the series is aimed at following residents of 'Benefits Street' as they navigate their way through life on the bottom rung of Britain's economic ladder, revealing the reality of life on benefits. It says that despite the challenges the residents face during a period of austerity, with jobs remaining hard to come by and benefits being squeezed, the street also has a strong sense of community.

A BBC television programme about the benefits system, presented by John Humphrys, breached the corporation's own rules on impartiality and accuracy, the BBC Trust has ruled in response to a complaint from the Child Poverty Action Group.

The programme, called 'The Future of the Welfare State', was broadcast on BBC2 in October 2011. Along with an accompanying article by Humphrys in the Daily Mail, the programme heavily emphasised the view that a 'benefits dependency' culture has grown up, with significant numbers of people 'perfectly happy' to remain out of work and living off benefits. As Humphrys put it in his article: 'Beveridge tried to slay the fifth evil giant and, in the process, helped to create a different sort of monster in its place: the age of entitlement'.

As many as 2.5 million people may be claiming out-of-work benefits on a long-term basis, according to an analysis by the Department for Work and Pensions. And it added that there are just over a million even when those on incapacity benefits are excluded.

PSE:UK is a major collaboration between the University of Bristol, Heriot-Watt University, The Open University, Queen's University Belfast, University of Glasgow and the University of York working with the National Centre for Social Research and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. ESRC Grant RES-060-25-0052.